Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Don Cheo is a fixture in East Harlem. He owns two buildings and lives in one of them. He says his East Harlem block is the best one in all of NYC as far as he is concerned. He has seen the barrio go up and down through the years. But he is not planning to go anywhere. East Harlem is home.

To view more photos of Don Cheo and other El Barrio shots I took on recent photo walk with members of the NYC Collective of the Puerto Rican Photographic Society in NYC's Spanish Harlem, the crown jewel of Puerto Rican culture. Despite the rapid gentrification going on in the area, the boricua presence could still be felt. Don Cheo is an example. Go to http://flickr.com/photos/clarisel.

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About me

A photoblogger, I document images of everyday life and share them with a larger, worldwide online audience. My goal is to use my photography to empower, inform and celebrate life. I carry my camera with me everyday and shoot regularly. I take photos as an extension of what my eyes and mind sees. I enjoy landscapes, urban, street photography, black and white, nature, photojournalism, architecture, animal portraits...I enjoy to tell stories.

Documenting everyday life through photography makes me see everyday things that I may have otherwise taken for granted.

In 2002, I began shooting photos in Puerto Rico, where I used to live and work. I fell in love with its architecture, palm trees, beaches and people, and I fell in love with the art of photography. Puerto Rico inspired me to share my photography with the world. I took photos as part of Puerto Rico Sun, a cultural arts project that I started as an e-magazine to empower and inform boricuas.

I returned home to New York City in 2005. Today I am editor and publisher of Puerto Rico Sun Communications, a community-minded independent multimedia social entrepreneurship aimed at informing, empowering and building community. Shooting photos to document the Puerto Rican experience is part of my mission.